Surface Research - Artists

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Julia Denos is a Boston-based illustrator. She graduated from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, where she received her BFA in Illustration. Denos grew up making picture books and is now working full time as an illustrator, creating works of art for clients such as American Girl Magazine, Independent Banker Magazine, and Oxford University Press.

Ran Hwang, a Korean-born artist who creates intricate and poetic installations, is most known for her wall sculptures utilizing every day objects, such as buttons and crystals. With these objects, she creates giant wall murals of birds and trees, as well as other scenes. Most of her work is inspired by Buddhist theories and symbolism.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Akaine, born on July 9, 1994 in Illinois, is a child prodigy. At age four she began to draw, and by age six, she was creating intricate and lifelike paintings. Growing up, she taught herself all the artistic skills that she obtained through keen observation and study. She often works over a hundred to two hundred hours on a painting, producing 8 to 20 paintings a year. Her favorite mediums are acrylics and oil paints.

Matt W. Moore is the founder of MWN Graphics, a design and illustration studio based in Portland, Maine. Moore is most known for his signature "Vectorfunk" style, doing freeform watercolor paintings to huge aerosol murals. In February of 2010, Moore traveled to Paris for his first Paris Solo Exhibition. While he was there, he absorbed the culture and gained inspiration from the environment around him. These paintings (above), which are so clean and precise that they almost give off a digital feel, were created entirely with spray paint, one of his favorite mediums.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Betsy Walton, born in Kansas, is a painter and illustrator based in Portland, Oregon. As a painter, Walton works with galleries, collectors, as well as personal projects. Her style is influenced by Byzantine icon paintings, American folk art, geometric abstraction, and the works of many contemporary painters and illustrators. Her artwork explores the "tension and balance between the mysterious nature of our existence and the objects and environments we find in everyday life." I was drawn to Walton's paintings because of her use of pattern, color, and unique subject matters.